Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-11-29
THE CHESTNUT Bell,
Ano news ~ Its Existence Finally Reaches
an English MasaxIne Editor.

the News II Its Existence Finally Raac
An English MasazIne Editor.
10 say that the Americans have rot
a new slang expression Is like repeat
ing the ancient news that man died
Yesterday in London. But there are
giants even among the Brobdin gnass.
and from time to time fresh Ameri.
canism breaks out ..likc an Irish rebel.
Ion thirty thousand strong" and rises
70 the dignity of u national institution.
ouch seems to be the magnitude and
Importance of the simple word "chest-
nuts Like many great incarnations
"chestnuts' came at first before tho
world in humble guisc. As an Ameri-
can Anglo-German poet has sung:
NO one knew how 1t was startod.
orhow de fore-shlog came
out about two years ago, where or
Whenever Frcnchman would haze
cried "Connu!' or an Englishraan have
murmured Joe Millerr' the Transit.
iahtics began to yell "chcstnuts!
Woe to the man who tried to palm off
an "old soldier" for IL .rccruit." ifnpy
one was present who recognized n
single feature. But, MS usual, when
the etymologists examined tho new
phrase, nobody knew whence it came.
1t was said that the dead chestnut of
last year suggested, like Villon's SHOWS
OF tho preceding year or of the south
wind, its origin. Any one who has
prowled in the forests in spring tis,e
knows how often n chestnut may be
picked up which is fair to view, but
which on examination proves to be
about rs valuable as Dead Sea apple
Another Investigator declared THAI the
word was derived from IL certain invct-
crate repeater Of worn-out jokes named
Chestnut. who had actually been in
dicted by grand jury in Connecticut
as Il public nuisance "because nobody
could stand his stories"
But it is time to consider what will
be the ultimate effect of the chestnut
boil on American intellect and culture
Is it really good for country TO have
no old jokes. no venerable Joes, no
standards of '.funf" Everybody can
not rise to a point of order or to the
point of joke with the acumcn of a
Riddleberger. Even a great American
declared. after years of investigation
through the annals of medieval, classic.
Egyptian and Assyr'ian wit and humor,
that there are only twenty-five original
jcsts in existence, and that all known
at the present day can be referred to
one or another of these. At the end OF
the last century the chestnut bell wa>
rung in France as "Connu!" The re-
suit has bcen-fro,:l. A feverish fret
fulness for something new, and ever
something new. brought France from
Rabelais to Foltaire-some may sa,
raised it-but the cry of "Connu" de
based it to endless isolated frivolous
witticisms. There has been great re-
joicing over the death of the pun; but
even the pun was not so bad as the
mere slang phrase which is succeeding
it.
One can not reflect without horror
what the result would be should this
great American 'campanologisti cor
receive" be introduced to England
Fancy the chestnut bell in our House OF
COmmons-worse yet, in the House OF
Lords! But even here there is CLEAN
of light. 1t is within the reach of i'm
agnation to conceive its being runo
with great effect during one of Mr..
Gladstone's speeches. Imagine Lord
Randolph Churchill armed with one!
Imagine-but the imagination of the
reader will supply the rest. If there
ever was a bell which deserved to beal
the inscription "fulgura- FRANCO it is
the chestnut. That will break up the
thunders of 1.-THE gods. " Saturday Re
UieU.